The Joint House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts and Public Assets have invited the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, to appear before it on Monday over allegations of non-compliance with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.
Edun and Cardoso are also expected to answer questions on the alleged internal control weaknesses identified in the 2021 reports by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
In a letter signed jointly by the chairmen of the committees, Bamidele Salam and Ademorin Kuye, the reps asked Edun and Cardoso to provide details on remittance of operating surplus to the Federation Account by the apex bank in line with the provisions of relevant laws and regulations.
The Fiscal Responsibility Commission and the Auditor General for the Federation had submitted reports alleging that several Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government, including the CBN, failed to remit or under-remitted their operating surpluses as required by extant financial laws and regulations in the past six years.
The committees said it had given both the Finance Ministry and the apex bank adequate time to reconcile their accounts and present their positions in order to determine the degree of financial liabilities involved, hence the need for a final hearing to resolve the issues.
Similarly, the committee is equally looking at a report in the Auditor-General for the Federation’s statutory report alleging that several public assets, which had been fully paid for, have not been completed and put into use for many years.
“Some of these projects in Dutse, Abeokuta and other locations were awarded between 2011 and 2016 but have yet to be completed according to audit reports,” the statement further read.
The Punch
